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| - After coming to Pittsburgh, I realize that if there were a hell.....PGH parking authority would be at the head of it. I might spend eternity being chased by parking officers along a never-ending pink parking ticket.
Not even a month ago, my car was booted. They use security cameras to record your driving patterns so the booting vehicle can corner you. I had six unpaid parking tickets, five of which happened on my own street. I live on hobart in Sq. Hill where anybody who shops there can park on my street. I rarely find parking on my own street and I'm not allowed to park in my own driveway because my landlord's son who doesn't even live there wants a place to park his extra car. So I've had to park at the end of the street which is Pay parking for some stupid reason, and I've either been ticketed for parking there over two hours or not the paying the meter long enough. So my car was
eventually booted and held for $800 and on top of it, the a$$hole officer ticketed my car while it was booted for an expired meter. Ugh.
Fast forward to now; I just got a new job in Shadyside. I have no extra money after rent and my Internet bill because my job is minimum wage. There is NOWHERE to park for people working in Shadyside. Let me rephrase; there are SO many places to park in Shadyside but I'm not allowed to park in any of them. The parking garage is $10 a day, which I can't afford. The bus is $5 a day, which I still can't afford. All the rest of the parking is 2 hour and permit. You can't even move your car every two hours because they find you. There's one lot that's free, but I got into a shouting match with the security guard because it's 'private'. I've had 4 tickets in this last week, even trying to park a mile away on an empty street. I have no options left and I worry about not being able to afford having a job in this neighborhood.
Pittsburgh Parking authority is predatory, even to is own residents. We are throwing money into this city, working to make things better here, and it bites us in the ass. Really, really sad.
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